Evaluation Question 4 part 4

Final Cut Pro

In the construction of my short film the main technology that I used was Final Cut Pro. This software enabled me to edit and modify multiple video and audio clips to create the short film. The main tool used in this was the 'blade' tool; this was used to trim and separate different clips to put them in the correct order. the tool was particularly useful in separating and removing all outtakes and mistakes from the main footage. Another significant tool used was in the 'effects' tab' from here I could include different visual effects on individual clips such as 'Earthquake'. This effect would shake video files (controlled by a panel) to give a psychological and distorted feel to it. In addition to this to keep with the genre conventions another effect used was the image distort tool that can be seen mainly at the end of the short film narrative; this spun the image and warped the footage to make it seem as though the main character was falling into hysteria and made the audience feel 'dizzy' by the end.

Overall the most important tool used was the 'colour corrector' tool. I was able to manipulate the footage to have different levels of contrast, boosting the vibrancy of different clips and allowing more to be seen from the footage. Following this I could also darken certain clips so that certain items in the background could be completely blacked out and also invited a sinister tone.

When it came to sound I could also change the different levels of sound on the actual audio file where you can simply drag and either raise or lower the file. This allowed me to blend all the different sound files together and overall create an atmospheric piece.

Evaluation Question 4 part3

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Photoshop

The only hindrance with Photoshop was its lack of tool labelling in the sidebar, using this software was an easy and efficient tool to use once you had learnt it, but doing this took a few hours more than it should have done due to it being frustratingly difficult to locate certain tools at times. 

Evaluation Question 2 part 2

 How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The physical technology that was used in the process of filming and editing were as follows:

HDV Camera:

 The HDV camera was helpful in creating our short film for a number of reasons. The first being that this camera allowed the footage to be recorded for much long that an ordinary camera and also gave a clearer image when played back onto the Mac computers. The limitations of this technology was that because it was new technology we were using different settings such as HDV and DV were hard to find and change, following on from this it hindered our ability to film. We filmed in the wrong format therefore meaning we had to re-film the entire piece again. Another set back to using these camera's was that it records onto a Tape rather that onto an SD card. This meant that we were then required to digitise the footage on a tape deck; this became a much longer process than simply downloading the video files from an SD card but in turn allowed for better footage.

HD Camera:

For filming my audience feedback and taking behind the scenes photo's of the short film, a handheld HD camera was used. This equipment was used as it was a very simple and effective way of recording vital information. In addition to this it enabled me to utilise a very fast way of uploading and installing footage for feedback as it all came directly from an SD card rather than having to digitilise footage such as it was on the HDV camera, furthermore this camera was also lightweight and easy to use in comparison with the HDV camera as the tripod did not encumber me as much. The only flaw with this technology is that the sound and image quality is not up to the same standard as a HDV but for its purpose of use in this circumstance it worked perfectly.

Halogen Lights:

The Halogen lights that we used were effective uses of technology. The lights gave us the power to create different forms of shadowing and lighting effects for atmosphere in the film. Using the reflectors different angles of light were able to present themselves on screen and show characters in different forms and allowed us to play around with the notions of 'good and evil' and contrast them with 'light and dark' as the main antagonist was always shown brightly lit. In addition to the lights being useful they also held us back at points with its limitations. For instance the lights become incredibly hot and overheat after a matter of minutes, making it hard for the actors to act and also to assemble and disassemble them afterwards as they become blazing hot.

Computers Used:

When it came to creating and editing our three ancillary texts (short film, magazine article and poster) I used to different types of computers. For the main film I used a Mac computer which was by far one of the easiest ways to edit the product. The use of effects was incredibly easy use and the whole product was easy to manage on it. The only thing that let the Mac down was human error as it was the first time that I had ever used one and so I started off at a slower pace than what I would have done if I had been using a PC.

When it came to editing footage for audience feedback, poster creation and the article creation the technology used was a PC. The reason behind this was that for things such as editing feedback it was very quick and simple to use as I could download the clips directly from an SD card rather than having to digitise the footage, furthermore when it came to the usage of Photoshop and InDesign they were easy to access and user friendly and helped me develop and further my skills with these software program. The only fault with the PC was that there was never enough memory on the computer to actually export and save the final products that I had designed, instead the use of external memory devices had to be used to save and export the products, taking more time to do so and being a frustrating inconvenience when I had finished products waiting to upload.

How Blogger helped in my use of exhibition

The website Blogger was a highly useful tool in the creation of both my blog and all research. In using this technology I was able to create and meet different criteria specified by the lecturer by creating different posts that consisted of ancillary texts, short essays answering questions using the insert video tool and image tool to embed different media onto the blog and overall create an effect coursework project.

Evaluation Question 4 part 1

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Here is a short tutorial on how to create the magazine article in Adobe Indesign. Using the text to and manipulating its size pull quotes and drop caps are made easy to use, following on from this using the rectangle tool images can be inserted and re-sized and the same can be seen in Microsoft Publisher in this short video tutorial.

Evaluation Question 3 part 2

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From looking at my audience feedback for the short film I have learnt a number of things. The first being that the narrative twist at the end was effective in it being unexpected by the audience and in Jakiya's case she is still trying to figure out the ending, showing its ambiguity to be successful. My personal opinion on the twist is that even though to most it was unexpected I believe I could have presented it better when it came to dialogue and on screen directions. At some points the film felt unclear as to where this twist was heading and although I wasn't aiming to 'spoon feed' the audience the narrative the story could have been slightly clearer in its intentions so that it wasn't too difficult for the audience to follow. For future pieces I create, I will improve upon this by adding in more deliberate scenes that leave larger clues as to what is happening and furthermore add more in depth twists to keep the audience engaged.

In terms of the sound editing and use of sound I found that all of the audience members believed it to be an effect micro-feature used to generate a tense and disturbing atmosphere to the short film, which in itself can be seen as a success. But in contrast to this there was one fatal flaw to it, most of the audience feed back I received consisted of the music and sound effects were at some points too loud and that the problem with this is that it can take away from the overall short film. For example in some sections of the short film characters dialogues were drowned out by the backing soundtrack and some sounds were so loud that it cause discomfort in the audience's ears. From this I have learnt that the levels of control on the sound should be adjusted and lowered so that they still create an eerie tone but must not consume the film.

In terms of the genre, I believe that we met the criteria of psychological thrillers codes and conventions. I included the same style of internal interrogation such as it is in 'Fight Club'. Even though we did not ask the audience on camera what genre they thought the short film was, each member guessed correctly. From this I believe that we successfully created an effective genre, the micro features I used in the short film consisted of the tight close camera angles creating a sense of claustrophobic and kept a non chronological narrative to create the confusion and disjointed atmosphere.

In terms of enigma I believe that I created a strong one when it came to who the characters were, the idea of making both characters the same person was a very unpredictable narrative device and from the likes on Facebook the audience enjoyed it. As for narrative a sense of dislocation was achieved throughout the narrative creating a powerful and thought provoking narrative.

Evaluation Question 3 part 1

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 2